Democrats planning special session

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Towns and cities stand to lose $40 million in tax revenue unless lawmakers can extend a special real estate tax that is due to expire at the end of June. On Thursday, Democrat leaders began collecting signatures of support for the extra session.

The local real estate transaction tax, which expires June 30, is strongly opposed by real estate agents who say it only exacerbates the slumping real estate market.

But the effort could become mired in the debate that dominated the final days of the regular session: whether to stick with the $18.4 billion budget passed last year and not make any changes given the state's new fiscal problems.

Their concern was the estimated $80 million deficit, a steep and stunning departure from a projected surplus of $263 million.

Minority Republicans vowed to keep pushing their budget alternative, which included more spending for everything from nursing homes to a gas tax holiday, paid for by an early retirement incentive program. They claim it's irresponsible not to make changes given the worsening economy.

"We will continue to talk about this issue," Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said Thursday. "We know we're going to be called into special session. We should not come in to special session for the purposes of raising taxes, we should come into special session for the purposes of debating the budget of the state of Connecticut."

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero said that holding a special session on just extending the real estate conveyance tax was "shameful," and vowed that Republicans will "force them to address the issues they left behind today."

Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, said he hopes to schedule the special session as soon as possible. The current fiscal year ends on June 30.

Special sessions cost taxpayers at least $10,000.

Both Williams and House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, stood by the decision against making changes to the budget and dismissed the GOP plan as political gimmickry. They maintain the spending and tax plan that's already been passed is a good one. It includes a 4 percent increase that covers additional spending on health care and municipal aid.

"They're starting to look a little silly," Amann said of the GOP. "Come on, move on."

Meanwhile, legislative leaders are also mulling whether to call rank-and-file lawmakers back to the Capitol to finish work on a much-debated ethics reform bill, which calls for revoking or reducing the pensions of corrupt elected officials, and state and municipal workers.

In the final hours of the session, the House and Senate got bogged down in a testy debate over whether the same standards should apply to both groups of people.

Williams said he is open to revisiting the issue - which stems from the 2004 resignation of former Gov. John G. Rowland amid a corruption scandal - so long as a compromise can be reached. But given the rancor, it's unclear whether that will happen.